Monthly Archives: October, 2013

Many applicants to the Lemonade Fund this month. Here are two stories:

M. is a French immigrant with four teenage children and a husband who became too disabled to work, after their arrival. Until her recent diagnosis with breast cancer, M. had been the sole breadwinner in the family, (working as a salesperson in a shop.) M. is now unable to work due to the side effects of chemotherapy and their only income is her husband’s disability payments. This has caused a precipitous fall in their financial situation, which is now desperate. The Lemonade Fund was happy to award a grant to assist M. and her family during this difficult time.

E. is a young Ethiopian woman who came to Israel as a girl in 1989. She has four children, ages 2-12 and is now separated from her husband. She was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 bilateral breast cancer and is receiving treatment at a hospital in the center of the country. She moved north to live with her parents so that they can help her with her children, however her father is too old to help and her mother is overwhelmed with the task of caring for her grandchildren as well as her daughter. In addition, E. has to travel quite far for her bimonthly chemotherapy treatments. The Lemonade Fund issued a generous grant to E. and her family, and we pray for her recovery.

We are considering expanding our services to provide meals, visits and transportation to treatments, for patients being treated at Breast Centers in the Raanana area, as there is a great need for this. If we have enough volunteers we can do this.

We also need help in writing, translating (English to Hebrew,) and researching. This work may be done from home.

The Lemonade Fund is an Israeli organization that gives financial assistance to needy Israeli breast cancer patients who are in active treatment, Recently, a local friend and supporter of the Lemonade Fund needed help herself… help of a different kind. She knew it would be challenging to prepare healthy meals, for herself and her family, while undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. The Lemonade Fund asked for volunteers to cook meals for her, and the response was overwhelming. At the same time, a social worker at a breast center in a nearby hospital mentioned that there are some patients who are completely alone, and who could use a kindly delivered, home-cooked meal more than anything, We are seeing a need, one that our generous community is able and eager to fill, and thus was born the idea of adding meal assistance to the menu of services offered by the Lemonade Fund.

If you’d like to prepare a meal now and then for a patient from the Raanana/Herziliya/Kfar Saba area, please send an email to info@lemonadefund.org and the Lemonade Fund will let you know how to sign up. The process is simple and straightforward and doesn’t involve long term commitment. Can even be a one-time thing. Please share this post.

How lucky are we that we can come together to help each other in this way! Thank you.

Sadly, September applicants were unusually young; all born after 1975, with children ranging in ages from 5-16.

L., 38, is a single Mom with three children, ages 15, 11 and 5, living near Sderot. She had been employed prior to her diagnosis, as a hairdresser, but now cannot work during her treatments. She receives less than 1000 shekels per month for alimony and is waiting for approval for disability payments. In the meantime, she and her family are in financial free fall. The Lemonade Fund was created to help patients exactly like L. It was our privilege to award L. a grant to help her get through this difficult time.

T., also 38, hails from the south, and is the mother of five children, ranging in age from 13 to 5. Unfortunately she was diagnosed with very advanced disease and she requires extensive treatment and surgery. Her husband works in a low paying job and prior to her illness, T. worked as a gannenet (kindergarten teacher.) They made ends meet with two salaries, but the loss of T.’s salary has been catastrophic for them and they are no longer able to afford basics. In her application T. requested help so that her family could have food for the holidays as well as money for school supplies for her children. T.’s situation is very serious and we are gratified to be able to help her and her family.

As anyone who is not color blind or newly arrived from the moon knows, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, or Pinktober, as it is cutely known. Some, such as survivor, Peggy Orenstein, see the ubiquitous pink ribbon symbol (hard to miss everything from pink pretzels to pink-sneakered NFL football players in October) as over-commercialization of a disease and as controversial. She raises interesting issues-would be interested to hear what you think:

The fact that significant progress in reducing mortality hasn’t been made, despite all of this publicity and research, is sobering. On the other hand, awareness is leading to earlier detection, which is, no arguments possible, better than late detection. So….no matter how one feels about pink ribbons, the Lemonade Fund is using this opportunity to remind all women to practice self examination and to keep to a regular mammogram schedule.